Origin

Nowadays to cope with something is to manage or deal with it effectively, but the word used to mean ‘to meet in battle’ or ‘to come to blows’. Its source is the Latin word colpus ‘a blow’, which is also the root of coup (Late Middle English), ‘a sudden seizure of power from a government’ often used in its French form coup d'état (mid 17th century). Coppice (Late Middle English), woodland where the trees have regularly been cut back, and its shortening copse (late 16th century) also go back to colpus, from the idea that they have been cut back with blows.

Origin

Nowadays to cope with something is to manage or deal with it effectively, but the word used to mean ‘to meet in battle’ or ‘to come to blows’. Its source is the Latin word colpus ‘a blow’, which is also the root of coup (Late Middle English), ‘a sudden seizure of power from a government’ often used in its French form coup d'état (mid 17th century). Coppice (Late Middle English), woodland where the trees have regularly been cut back, and its shortening copse (late 16th century) also go back to colpus, from the idea that they have been cut back with blows.